In “Araby” James Joyce portrays his childhood as a dark, hopeless and poverty stricken one. Which would lead one to believe that this was how Joyce himself grew up, which is somewhat true. In fact Joyce was born into a fairly prosperous family of Irish merchants, although like all Irish Catholics of the time, “the Joyces inherited a tradition of legal and cultural repression. ”(Bloom) As time wore on the Anglo-Irish aristocracy took its toll on his family’s wealth taking away all of his fathers land as well as his career.

This slide in social standing seemed to have discouraged Joyce’s creativity, as symbolized in his short story “Araby”. Joyce believed he was a victim of circumstance, and saw his Irish homeland as a prison because of that circumstance. Joyce ’s creativity was discouraged in a few different ways, we will examine the two major culprits, the church and religious symbolism, as well as the social restrictions he had to contend with. First let us discuss the religious symbolism implied throughout the story.

In the opening paragraphs Joyce talks about the Priest whom had died where the narrator himself now lives. The home where the narrator had found a smut book, as well as the Priest’s will and paperwork of charitable contributions, since when does a Priest make enough money to have an extensive will, wonders the narrator? I also believe the Araby bazaar was a symbol of the church as Cleanth Brooks stated “The quest for the father, for the church, has been thwarted by reality.

The bazaar turns out to be just as cold, as dark, and as man-made as the gloomy house of the dead priest on his own street. ”(Fitzgerald) The dreary and sordid life Joyce recollects, does not only comes from his religious disappointments but also from his social shortcomings as well. Joyce felt that he was a marginal man, a victim of circumstances. The Anglo-Irish aristocracy as stated earlier took his family from well off, to poverty in the matter of a few years. Joyce in the story tells of this extreme poverty through his usage of negative words or phrases.

He tells of “an uninhabited house of two storeys that stood at the blind end of his street. ”(Paragraph 1) Or when he refers to the decaying neighborhood and the “dark dripping gardens where odorous arose from the asphits. ”(Paragraph 3) These circumstances and disappointments characterize Joyce’s feelings of imprisonment within his homeland. Later on in life Joyce fled Ireland for other European countries where his creativity prospered and Joyce lived a rather fulfilling life as a writer and poet.

James Joyces "araby"James Joyce's "Araby"In James Joyce's short story "Araby," several different micro-cosms areevident. The story demonstrates adolescence, maturity, and public life in Dublinat that time. As the reader, you learn how this city has grown to destroy thisyoung boy's life and hopes, and create the person that he is as a narrator.In "Araby," the "mature narrator and not the naive boy is the story'sprotagonist."(Coulthard) Throughout the story this is easily shown, especiallywhen it refers to "the hour when the Christian Brothers' school set the boysfree."(Joyce 2112) Although they were freed, they were placed into an "equallygrim world, where not...

The characters in Araby display a wide spectrum of vanity that encompasses a variety of people. The narrator of the story is the best example of vanity. He is obsessed with a girl that lives next door to him. He never remarks about her personality but does remark that her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance. A mind that is only intrigued by images is the pinnacle of vanity. Another example of this vanity in the narrator is noted within other statements about the girl. The narrator remarks that her name sprang to my lips...

The story "Araby," by James Joyce, shows how people often expect more than that which ordinary reality can provide and consequently feel disappointed when they do not receive what they expect. Another fascinating piece of literature is the poetry collection The Black Riders and Other Lines by Stephen Crane. What, if anything, does one have to do with the other? This paper will compare one of Crane's poems to Joyce's story."Araby" tells the story of a young boy's disillusionment with life as he experiences his first adult feelings of love for a girl, but is then denied expression of his...

In "Araby" and "Eveline" Joyce uses religious symbols to show the importance of the Catholic religion in both of the main characters' lives. Both of these stories take place in Dublin, Ireland, a place that is very strong in its belief in the Catholic religion. In "Araby," the imagery of the infamous "Fall" is presented to the reader within the second paragraph to indicate its importance. The themes of religious masses can be found in "Eveline." The concept of the Catholic Ash Wednesday is presented throughout both "Araby" and "Eveline."The second paragraph of "Araby" presents the idea of the Adam...

Analytical View Of James Joyces' Araby#Goldstein ##Sara GoldsteinErnst Narrative Fiction22 October 2000An Analytical View of ArabyViewpoints from which stories are written are used to enhance the overall point a story is making. James Joyce's Araby is no exception. Narrated by a young boy of about twelve or thirteen, it depicts his personal coming of age. The usage of a first person narration allows the reader to see things the way the boy sees them; be as innocent and wistful as he is, thus feeling the incredible intensity of his eventual realization. In addition to this coming of age theme, intricately...

The short story "Araby" by Joyce is a highly dramatic short story. The narrator takes his readers through his times of life is a constant reminder of how the narrator is slowly becoming an adult. His uncle is not very reliable due to his drinking habit and the narrator has to learn to take care of himself. The narrator also is learning to grow from a boy to a young adult, because of his secret love. He learns to take things for what they are and make the best of things. He also comes to the painful realization that some...

Awareness "Araby" by James Joyce and "A Sunrise On The Veld" by Doris Lessing are both short stories in which the protagonists gained a consciousness that was beyond themselves. The main characters are both initiated into new realities and truths of which they were not previously aware. Both short stories will be examined with reflections according to the type of initiation that was experienced, the nature of the narrators, the similar and dissimilar aspects of both characters and various components of the short stories. In the two stories, both characters were experiencing an initiation or awareness of new actualities that...

The Maturity of a Boy Passion, adolescence, foolishness, and maturity are the first words that come to one's mind to describe James Joyce's short story, "Araby." In it, he writes about a boy who falls deeply in love with his best friend's sister, who through the story, doesn't seem to notice him or care about him. The boy, who has yet to be named, lives in a poor and run-down town. During the story, certain characters contribute to the boy's developing sense of maturity, and eventually, lead him into adulthood. Mangan's sister, the boy's uncle, the priest, and the girl...

by Joyce Dubliners Araby EssaysHow the Setting Reinforces the Theme and Characters in Araby The setting in "Araby" reinforces the theme and the characters by using imagery of light and darkness. The experiences of the boy in James Joyce's "Araby" illustrate how people often expect more than ordinary reality can provide and then feel disillusioned and disappointed. The author uses dark and obscure references to make the boy's reality of living in the gloomy town of Araby more vivid. He uses dark and gloomy references to create the mood or atmosphere, then changes to bright light references when discussing Mangan's...

John Updike's A ; P and James Joyce's Araby share many of the same literarytraits. The primary focus of the two stories revolves around a young man who iscompelled to decipher the different between cruel reality and the fantasies ofromance that play in his head. That the man does, indeed, discover thedifference is what sets him off into emotional collapse. One of the mainsimilarities between the two stories is the fact that the main character, who isalso the protagonist, has built up incredible,yet unrealistic, expectations ofwomen, having focused upon one in particular towards which he places all hisunrequited affection. The...

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In “Araby” James Joyce portrays his childhood as a dark, hopeless and poverty stricken one. Which would lead one to believe that this was how Joyce himself grew up, which is somewhat true. In fact Joyce was born into a fairly prosperous family of Irish merchants, although like all Irish Catholics of the time, “the Joyces inherited a tradition of legal and cultural repression. ”(Bloom) As time wore on the Anglo-Irish aristocracy took its toll on his family’s wealth taking away all of hi